Has anyone thought about what happens if he resigns?

[redstatebluegirl]

We get crazy religious nutcase Pence who will need a vp. Who would that vp be, my guess is Paul Ryan. What a mess that will be.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Sarah Palin is available, dontcha know?

Oh, there'd be some hollerin' and a-hootin', but we'd get yer darn-tootin' US of A back on track; that's fer sure.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. That might not work, since Pence can't be alone with any woman but his wife........

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Okay, Ann Coulter, then. NT

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. You sly devil, you!

[keithbvadu2]

36. Good one!

[bearsfootball516]

2. Yeah, although 2020 would pretty much be a lock.

Pence doesn't have the rapid base support Trump does, and he'd have the Trump albatross hanging around his neck.

[keithbvadu2]

37. At first I thought you said 'rabid'... It fits so well.

At first I thought you said 'rabid'... It fits so well.

[First Speaker]

3. Maybe Hannibal Lector is available...

[The empressof all]

6. Mitch Mc Connell Nightmare ensues....

Mitch is at the end of his Senate Career.. He will accept the VP slot knowing Pence will need to resign himself in short order. Mc Connell becomes President...and we are all pretty much FUCKED....

[saljr1]

8. Don't be suprised if Pence is implicated too

Remember his nomination as VP came out of nowhere and it was Manafort's hand picked guy. Rumors on Capital Hill that Pence has been very nervous and tried to talk to Special Counsel this past summer and it's been reported that they refuse to see him.

[Wellstone ruled]

10. You might be on to the

real story to pop shortly. He did hire Lawyers about a week ago,and a story yesterday seemed interesting about his motorcade being one block from that DC Court building.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

12. President Pelosi!

She'll soon be the next person in succession if Trump AND Pence go down.

Right-wing heads would explode!

[johnp3907]

9. It's already a mess.

[SCantiGOP]

11. The good news

President nominates a VP, but that person has to be confirmed by both Senate and House.
So, Pence (or Trump if Pence left) would have to nominate someone who could be confirmed by the Dem House or risk that Pelosi would be next in line for the Presidency during the vacancy.

[murielm99]

14. The House could refuse to confirm anyone.

Payback for Garland.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. +1!

[Buckeyeblue]

21. Yes. We could demand it be a democrat given that HRC won by 3 million votes

If Pence refused, then the VP spot stays open. Pence will not be the nominee. It will be someone as far away from 45 and 46 as they can get.

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. Pence is dirty. Mueller knows it.

The way it worked with Nixon was that the VP...agnew...resigned for his dirty deeds, leaving the spot open, and the Republicans agreed on Ford...sorta of the bassett hound of the Senate, he knew what he would have to do, so pardon Nixon, leave Ford, wait out the 2 years.

(Interesting note: Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; in 1918. have no idea what that was about.)

Gonna be interesting to see how the current rat catching is gonna work, but I am absolutely certain many many moves have been planned ahead by the important sane people.

[Buckeyeblue]

24. Yes. Pence is in on most, if not all of this.

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. So the trick for Mueller is to time the various charges.

He knows what the big picture should look like.

I have a lot of confidence in him and his team.

[csziggy]

34. Ford's parents were divorced soon after his birth - he took the name of his stepfather

Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska, where his parents lived with his paternal grandparents. He was the child of Dorothy Ayer Gardner and Leslie Lynch King Sr., a wool trader. His father was a son of prominent banker Charles Henry King and Martha Alicia King (née Porter). Gardner separated from King just sixteen days after her son's birth. She took her son with her to Oak Park, Illinois, home of her sister Tannisse and brother-in-law, Clarence Haskins James. From there, she moved to the home of her parents, Levi Addison Gardner and Adele Augusta Ayer, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gardner and King divorced in December 1913, and she gained full custody of her son. Ford's paternal grandfather Charles Henry King paid child support until shortly before his death in 1930.[3]

Ford later said that his biological father had a history of hitting his mother.[4] In a biography of Ford, James M. Cannon, a member of the Ford administration, wrote that the separation and divorce of Ford's parents were sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King took a butcher knife and threatened to kill his wife, his infant son, and Ford's nursemaid. Ford later told confidants that his father had first hit his mother when she smiled at another man during their honeymoon.[5]

After living with her parents for two-and-a-half years, Gardner married Gerald Rudolff Ford on February 1, 1916. Gerald was a salesman in a family-owned paint and varnish company. They now called her son Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. The future president was never formally adopted and did not legally change his name until December 3, 1935; he also used a more conventional spelling of his middle name.[6] He was raised in Grand Rapids with his three half-brothers from his mother's second marriage: Thomas Gardner "Tom" Ford (1918–1995), Richard Addison "Dick" Ford (1924–2015), and James Francis "Jim" Ford (1927–2001).[7]

Ford also had three half-siblings from the second marriage of Leslie King Sr., his biological father: Marjorie King (1921–1993), Leslie Henry King (1923–1976), and Patricia Jane King (1925–1980). They never saw one another as children, and he did not know them at all until 1960. Ford was not aware of his biological father until he was 17, when his parents told him about the circumstances of his birth. That year his biological father, whom Ford described as a "carefree, well-to-do man who didn't really give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son", approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. The two "maintained a sporadic contact" until Leslie King Sr.'s death in 1941.[4][8]

Ford said, "My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother equally wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford#Early_life

[dixiegrrrrl]

38. Interesting.......thanks.

[PJMcK]

40. A minor correction

Gerald Ford served 25 years as a Representative from Michigan. He never served as a Senator.

[LanternWaste]

13. Despite his arrogance, I think yours is the most likely outcome.

I'd shudder to think if Trump went scorched earth (politically)-- it's not beyond the realm of possibilities, but in the end, I think he'll simply slither away back into the private market.

Pence, though unexciting, would being a much-needed breath of rational calm to the GOP who'll be recovering from the post-Trump PTSD for the next six years, and between him and Ryan as VP could easily get about 80% of the conservative electorate behind their lame duck administration (my guess).

And to be honest, they'd be a hundred times more effective at their roles. Not a kudos to them, but rather an illustration of just how badly trump is at this stuff.

[PJMcK]

41. Trump won't be able to sliver back into his old life

He's trapped in the legal systems now. He's never going to be free from investigators.

[saljr1]

15. I'll tell ya

It started out whenever you shook the tree there were Russians falling and now it might be Russians and Middle Easterners falling out with Americans ( traitors) holding their hands.

[ariesgem]

16. There was a scenario put out on MSNBC

That if he lost the 2020 election, he could resign at the very last minute before leaving office and have Pence give him a blanket pardon. Or, he can resign at any time and be pardoned by Pence.

[SCantiGOP]

18. I have no doubt that would happen

Trump would just spin it as a response to the “illegal witch hunt.”

[politicaljunkie41910]

19. Paul Ryan is leaving. He's got a Million dollar job all locked up with some Fortune 500 firm on

Wall St. His brother also works for a similar firm, if not the same firm. That info has been out there for some time which is why Paul Ryan hasn't appeared to give a damn for some time now.

[backscatter712]

20. Ideally, Trump and Pence get impeached and thrown out at the same time.

Pelosi for President 2019!

[rurallib]

22. Lots of people worry about this constantly

there is a sort of "Pence first" movement among some.
Their hoped for scenario is that Pence is indicted and impeached first so he can't pardon Trump upon assuming the presidency.
Then in quick succession before a VP can be nominated and confirmed, Trump is impeached and confirmed.

In that scenario the then Speaker of the House would assume the presidency.

[McCamy Taylor]

25. Pence will get Spiro Agnew'd.

He is even more bat shit crazy than Trump. Plus, the Koch Brothers own his sorry ass.

[Gothmog]

27. If trump resigns it will be in connection with some sort of plea deal with Mueller and NY AG

Link to tweet

[jmowreader]

28. Yes. This is what will happen.

1. Pence will be a "caretaker" president for the remaining time in Trump's term. I doubt he'll even run in 2020. He knows anyone associated with Trump will lose.

2. The Democrats will demand, and Pence will supply, an economic conservative as his VP nominee. Think "a Warren Buffett protege, if we can't convince Mr. Buffett himself to do it."

3. Pence will not pardon any of the Trumps - "the Trumps" are Donald, his evil family, and his Cabinet less Pence. SOMEONE's head has to go on the figurative chopping block (unlike China, we don't have the death sentence for economic crimes) for the monumental disaster the Trump administration has been, and the Trumps sound like good choices to me.

4. The Pence Administration will do nothing but keep the government running at present levels and throw the Trumps in prison.

5. The Trump Tax Cut will be repealed.

6. The Affordable Care Act will not be.

7. Deplorable Nation will quit politics in disgust when they realize the guy who claimed he was going to "drain the swamp" was the worst swamp creature of them all.

8. The GOP will choose a candidate for 2020 who repels voters just from the sight of him. They need to lose the next couple of elections to get the voters to forget how bad the last president they stuck us with was.

9. Mass retirements of Republican legislators will soon follow. They won't want to have to answer questions about their fealty to that thing.

[smirkymonkey]

30. I like your predictions.

I hope that it will work that way. It's possible.

[jmowreader]

33. I think mine is more likely than the doom-and-gloom ones

Not even the Republicans are stupid enough to double down on Trumpism if Trump has to resign in disgrace.

As to his supporters...you know, the pissed-off ones with enough guns to start an infantry company: One of the underlying principles of their movement is that they believe Trump is the only politician in America who isn't corrupt. All the Democrats are corrupt and most of the Republicans are too (well, in their eyes anyway) but Trump is a shiny golden example of the goodness of America. Or something like that. Unfortunately, the opposite is true: you've got to go to sub-Saharan Africa to find bigger crooks than Donald Trump. Trump has surpassed the corruption of Sani Abacha and is rapidly approaching Idi Amin in his criminality. The man is so crooked they need to screw him into his cheap suit every morning. When the Mueller Report finally issues and Trump's criminality can no longer be ignored, those folks will walk away from politics and never come back.

[El Supremo]

29. A week long party.

That will become a National Holiday.

[elocs]

31. You're really asking a lot for people to think through things like this aren't you? n/t

[redstatebluegirl]

35. Yep.

[regnaD kciN]

32. Nowhere near as much of a mess as we're in now...

While Pence has a reputation as a crazy fundamentalist, his track record shows that given enough pressure, he'll back down (including amending his own "religious freedom" bill in Indiana to eliminate provisions that would have legalized anti-LGBTQ discrimination). He may not like having to do so, but he will.

Also, Pence will be a lot easier to beat in 2020. He doesn't appeal to the "ordinary working guy" in the way that Trump's bluster does. For such people, Pence is the very essence of the buttoned-down political class they dislike. Not saying they're going to suddenly turn into Democrats, but they'll be more likely to stay home in November than turn out for someone like him.

Finally, Pence, whatever his failings, is unlikely to call out the military and impose martial law to keep himself in power. Nor is he going to start WWIII just because some other world leader "disrespected" him.

There are many such reasons that leave me incredibly impatient with the "but, if we remove Trump, Pence will be even worse!!!!" viewpoint. He'd be a lot easier to control and defeat, and far less of a danger to turn himself into a dictator. Case closed.

[Raine]

39. I have ... President Pence

[greyl]

42. You're the first. nt